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Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Competition angst

This is what I always do - send off something to a competition and then the agony starts.

First I'm realistic - lots of people sent work in for this competition, and many of them are already experienced and published and brilliant. I'm just a student, even if I am superannuated, I don't have to be brilliant, but it's a good thing to do, makes you work harder.

Then I go through the buts, but I am doing really well on my course, but I was published before, but I was shortlisted for a small competition in Writer's news last year...

Then the weeks roll round until the time when the 'winners will be notified'. Now the endless checking my emails begins, I wonder if my entries are any good, are being laughed over, even didn't get there at all. They say the middle of March, is that the 14th or 15th or 16th or do they mean not the beginning or end, but the three weeks in the middle? Or are they snowed under by all the brilliant stuff they received, and won't even know until April?

Of course, the real question is, is my story and good or not, and does it matter if one person on one day though it good enough to puit it on the 'possible' pile? One thing this writing lark is about, it's dealing with rejection. I need to have a world weary contempt for the whole process, but somehow while my body has aged my enthusiasm for writing is scarily positive and youthful. I'm just going to have to look at the work I sent in, and enjoy it for what it is - good enough for me.

The Secrets of Life and Death

The Secrets of Blood and Bone

The Secrets of Time and Fate

I Will Find You

A Shroud of Leaves

Saving Noah

About Me

My name is Rebecca Alexander, I am a novelist and poet living in North Devon. I have completed an MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Winchester. My dissertation novel 'The Secrets of Life and Death' was a runner up in the Mslexia 2011 novel writing competition. Another novel, 'A Baby's Bones' came second in the Yeovil novel competition, 2012. I have completed A215 and A363 with the Open University. I write novels with a mystery or supernatural theme and also enjoy writing poetry. I home educated my children, and live in a Georgian house near a river. I have too many cats. This blog is for the everyday stresses and successes of writing. My agent is Jane Willis of United Agents. The Secrets of Life and Death was published by Del Rey UK (part of Random House/Ebury) on October 2013 and the sequel The Secrets of Blood and Bone came out in the UK in October 2014. The third book in the trilogy will be out in 2016. I am presently writing another series, about archaeological puzzles.

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